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The Wretched Atom: America's Global Gamble with Peaceful Nuclear Technology
2022 WINNER, Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction
A groundbreaking narrative of how the United States offered the promise of nuclear technology to the developing world and its gamble that other nations would use it for peaceful purposes.
After the Second World War, the United States offered a new kind of atom that differed from the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This atom would cure diseases, produce new foods, make deserts bloom, and provide abundant energy for all. It was an atom destined for the formerly colonized, recently occupied, and mostly non-white parts of the world that were dubbed the wretched of the earth by Frantz Fanon.
The peaceful atom had so much propaganda potential that President Dwight Eisenhower used it to distract the world from his plan to test even bigger thermonuclear weapons. His scientists said the peaceful atom would quicken the pulse of nature, speeding nations along the path of economic development and helping them to escape the clutches of disease, famine, and energy shortfalls. That promise became one of the most misunderstood political weapons of the twentieth century. It was adopted by every subsequent US president to exert leverage over other nations' weapons programs, to corner world markets of uranium and thorium, and to secure petroleum supplies. Other countries embraced it, building reactors and training experts. Atomic promises were embedded in Japan's postwar recovery, Ghana's pan-Africanism, Israel's quest for survival, Pakistan's brinksmanship with India, and Iran's pursuit of nuclear independence.
As The Wretched Atom shows, promoting civilian atomic energy was an immense gamble, and it was never truly peaceful. American promises ended up exporting violence and peace in equal measure. While the United States promised peace and plenty, it planted the seeds of dependency and set in motion the creation of today's expanded nuclear club.
A groundbreaking narrative of how the United States offered the promise of nuclear technology to the developing world and its gamble that other nations would use it for peaceful purposes.
After the Second World War, the United States offered a new kind of atom that differed from the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This atom would cure diseases, produce new foods, make deserts bloom, and provide abundant energy for all. It was an atom destined for the formerly colonized, recently occupied, and mostly non-white parts of the world that were dubbed the wretched of the earth by Frantz Fanon.
The peaceful atom had so much propaganda potential that President Dwight Eisenhower used it to distract the world from his plan to test even bigger thermonuclear weapons. His scientists said the peaceful atom would quicken the pulse of nature, speeding nations along the path of economic development and helping them to escape the clutches of disease, famine, and energy shortfalls. That promise became one of the most misunderstood political weapons of the twentieth century. It was adopted by every subsequent US president to exert leverage over other nations' weapons programs, to corner world markets of uranium and thorium, and to secure petroleum supplies. Other countries embraced it, building reactors and training experts. Atomic promises were embedded in Japan's postwar recovery, Ghana's pan-Africanism, Israel's quest for survival, Pakistan's brinksmanship with India, and Iran's pursuit of nuclear independence.
As The Wretched Atom shows, promoting civilian atomic energy was an immense gamble, and it was never truly peaceful. American promises ended up exporting violence and peace in equal measure. While the United States promised peace and plenty, it planted the seeds of dependency and set in motion the creation of today's expanded nuclear club.
328 pages, Hardcover
Published July 1, 2021
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127 people want to read
About the author
Jacob Darwin Hamblin
9 books8 followersJacob Darwin Hamblin is a historian who writes about science, technology, and the environment. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Salon, and many publications devoted to the history of science, technology, and the natural world. He currently resides in the American Pacific Northwest, where he is a professor of history at Oregon State University.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 4, 2022
Useful study of the way ostensibly objective policy organizations dealing with "peaceful" uses of nuclear energy in fact served the purposes of the atomic energy industry, especially in their interactions with the Third World.
December 1, 2023
An informative book discussing the advent of nuclear power and the consequences that followed. I greatly appreciate the differing perspectives, especially how developing countries viewed cand came to see the prospect and power of nuclear energy.
At times, it can be quite dense, as it is a history book, but it showcases a lot of interesting perspectives throughout the latter-half of the 20th-century in how nuclear power and the threat of nuclear weaponry shifted perspectives, possibly deterring many countries from more developed futures.
At times, it can be quite dense, as it is a history book, but it showcases a lot of interesting perspectives throughout the latter-half of the 20th-century in how nuclear power and the threat of nuclear weaponry shifted perspectives, possibly deterring many countries from more developed futures.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews